Best Male Singer-Songwriter

Nicholas Megalis

Megalis kicked off 2009 by moving to New York to fine-tune his
one-man-band bedroom projects, which are just as inspired by Ornette
Coleman's free-form aural explorations as they are T.Rex's fuzzbox
stomps. But six months later he was back in Broadview Heights, after
spending most of his time in Brooklyn writing tunes about Cleveland.
(One of the few new songs he's released this year is called "God Bless
Ohio.") The 20-year-old singer-songwriter marked his homecoming with a
frenzied band show at House of Blues' Cambridge Room. He's now working
on a new album. Most of Megalis' music is unclassifiable (he calls it
"piano rock"), so we're not sure where he's headed. Hell, he
probably doesn't know where he's headed. But it's that sense of musical
adventure that makes him one of Cleveland's most original artists.
(myspace.com/nicholasmegalis)